Join us on August 1st at 4pm EASTERN time for our next Codon Convo with Jo Handelsman.
Achieving equity in STEM requires attracting and retaining college students from diverse backgrounds. Rather than implementing interventions that focus on fixing the students, we should instead focus on fixing the classrooms that discourage students from historically excluded communities pursuing STEM. Dr. Handelsman will discuss how teaching practices, a welcoming classroom environment, and content relevant to historically excluded communities can create an inclusive STEM college classroom.
In addition, Drs. Jenny Knight (University of Colorado-Boulder) and Ashley Rowland (Codon Learning) will demonstrate a new online Scientific Teaching Course in the Codon Learning platform that integrates AJEDI (antiracist, just, equitable, diverse, inclusive) principles. The course is based on updated content from the pioneering book Scientific Teaching (Macmillan, 2007) and Miller and Handelsman’s ongoing experiences with Tiny Earth, which includes an instructor training program that has empowered more than 700 instructors to teach with more effective and equitable practices.
The Scientific Teaching Course team is led by Jennifer Knight, Associate Professor of Biology in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and Sarah Miller, Executive Director of Tiny Earth at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Jo Handelsman (biography below). Faculty include Sheela Vemu, a Tiny Earth Partner Instructor at Waubonsee Community College, Zakiya Wilson-Kennedy from Louisiana State University, Cara Gormally from Gallaudet University, and Taziah Kenney from Jefferson University.
Dr. Jo Handelsman is the director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) and a Vilas Research Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 1985 where she served for 25 years before moving to Yale University in 2010. From 2014 to 2017, she served as a science advisor to President Barack Obama in her role as Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. After leaving the White House, Handelsman returned to UW-Madison where she continues to work on national policy as well as direct WID and pursue her own research on the soil and human microbiomes.
In addition to her groundbreaking studies in microbial communication and metagenomics, Jo is widely recognized for her contributions to science education and diversity in science. She has authored numerous articles about classroom methods and mentoring and she is co-author of six books about teaching, including Entering Mentoring and Scientific Teaching. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Obama in 2011.